Sing and Burn, Fenikkusu
by Designated Crowd Ninja
Summary: Kisuke Urahara's younger sister breaks free after decades of imprisonment, landing the suspicion on her when a strange spiritual energy is sensed around town the same time she arrives.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 - Breakout**

Akemi raised her head as far as the iron brace that held her body in this stiff position would allow. _'What's this?'_ she wondered _'Spirit Pressure?'_ . Her prison was designed so no form of spirit power could get in or out, so either she was imagining it after all this time locked in here, or the seals keeping her here were wearing. Only one way to test it.

Starting at her toes, she flexed each individual muscle. The were stiff from lack of use and screamed in painful protest, but they worked, which was a sure sign that the seals were weakening. The corner of her lips twitched into a smirk. Experimentally she opened her eyes, just as she'd expected it made little to no difference to the darkness, although as her eyes adjusted she saw a soft blue glow resonating off the walls. Concentrating hard, she pulled the unfamiliar spirit pressure towards her, absorbing it into her skin and focusing it into her muscles. She shifted slightly in the brace, counting the thick iron bands restricting her movement to a fraction of a centimeter, they ran from the top of her ribs to her ankles, all attached to a long metal beam that ran from the tips of her toes to the top of her skull, keeping her head tilted forward so her chin was almost resting on her chest. Being more careful this time, she counted the bands round her arms and fingers, not too bad. Breaking through the main part of the brace would be easy enough, but... the part of the brace that held her arms was separate from the rest, but because of the injuries it caused, it was most likely weaker.

Thankfully, the people who had imprisoned her in here hadn't made her prison out of the spirit pressure absorbing rock they usually would have so all she'd had to do was suppress her spirit pressure for the first few decades of her imprisonment and eventually Soul Society must of assumed, due to her lack of spirit pressure, that she'd died and removed the guards from the doors. With a great amount of concentration, she pulled up an image of a large iron gate in her mind. If she released enough of her spirit pressure, she could use it to blow the braces open.

"First gate... open."

Her body glowed violet, illuminating the space around her, she was at least ten feet from any surface, including the floor and ceiling. Now she'd opened the first 'Spirit Gate' it would be slightly easier to open the next few Spirit Gates, but she was weak at the moment and would only be able to hold them open for barely any time at all, or it could be the complete opposite effect, and she wouldn't be able to close them again, resulting in her death.

"Second gate, Third gate, Fourth gate... open"

An immense amount of spiritual pressure exploded from her, disintegrating the bonds instantly. To her relief, only the Third and Fourth Gates snapped shut again so she managed to stay upright as she hit the floor, though she did have to use her hand for balance. Only moments later a white blade of energy cut through the bolts on the door, though it soon faded in the residual energy of her spiritual pressure. Unfortunately it didn't open the doors.

"Third gate... open."

The doors were blown open and she started to take shaky steps forward, overwhelmed by her own power.

"Third gate... close. Second gate... close. First gate... close"

* * *

Kisuke sat bolt upright in his bed, sensing the familiar spirit pressure. She was breaking free, but that was a ridiculous amount of spirit pressure, she'd barely be able to stand after that. He rose from his bed and dressed swiftly, grabbing his zanpakto before leaving to 'accidentally' break the lock on the doors of her prison.

The spirit pressure got ridiculously immense for a moment, before fading to almost nothing.

* * *

Ichigo's eyes snapped open. What was that? That spirit pressure, it was so strong, but gone so quickly, maybe he imagined it? Yeah, probably.

* * *

Kisuke held his zanpakto high above his head, the edge of its blade directed towards the lock. He focused all his spirit energy into the blade and swung it down in a straight line. A bright white curve slashed out from the edge of the blade, cutting the bolts on the door clean in two. A moment later a bright violet light shone brightly through the crack in the doors, before blowing them wide open with a violent gust of wind. The light momentarily blinded him, but he could still see the silhouette's of a girl, her hair blowing out wildly behind her. As the light faded completely she fell forward, Kisuke catching her before she hit the ground. Her spirit power quickly fading.

"Kisuke-kun..." she uttered, before passing out. Her voice, though scratchy and choked, was still musical.

"It's good to have you back Akemi-chan" he whispered, cradling her in his arms.

* * *

"So you felt it too?" wondered Ichigo

"Ah," nodded Chad

"We all did." confirmed Orihime

Ichigo looked round the group, so he hadn't been imagining that short burst of ridiculously strong spirit pressure last night.

"I wonder who it was" said Orihime

"Or what" suggested Uryu

"Yeah..." muttered Ichigo, his mind elsewhere. He wondered if Urahara or Yorichi had felt it, probably. They might even know who it was with such ridiculous spirit pressure that it woke even him up, and he wasn't exactly known for his ability of sensing spirit pressure.

"I'll drop by Urahara's store after school, he might have some kind of explanation."

"I'll go with you!" insisted Orihime

Chad nodded, indicating that he'd come to.

"I-I might as well go too" added Uryu, not wanting to be left out.

* * *

Tessai made to grab Ichigo before he burst in unannounced, but the boy ducked out of his reach and flung open the doors. The four teenagers froze at the scene in front of them.

There was a girl, with long hair about the same colour as Kisuke's, and fairly pale skin, she was wearing a simple skirt and t-shirt. She looked no older than them, possibly even younger, and was curled up on the floor with her head and arms in Kisuke's lap, she appeared to be asleep. Kisuke was stroking her hair and smiling to himself. Only Ichigo seemed to jump to the worst and probably most inaccurate conclusion.

"You dirty old pervert!" he yelled, throwing a punch at Kisuke, who caught it easily with his free hand.

"You've made a mistake Ichigo, this isn't..."

"Like hell it is! How old is..."

"N-niisan?" asked the girl, rubbing her eye "What's going on?" she looked to Kisuke for answers

"Oh sorry Akemi-chan, did we wake you? Let me just get rid of these people then you can sleep in peace."

Akemi pushed herself into a sitting position, although it looked as if she was still leaning on Kisuke "No, it's alright, I'm f-fine now" she insisted, suppressing a yawn.

Ichigo was completely frozen to the spot, mentally smacking himself in the head. Of course the two were related, they looked so similar!

"Kisuke-san! I didn't realize you had a little sister!" flourished Orihime, her eyes lighting up at the younger girl

"That's 'cuz I never told ya" he said plainly, now letting go of Ichigo's fist.

"Are you just here to visit or are you staying?" Orihime asked Akemi brightly,

"Um..." she looked wide-eyed at Orihime,

"Hold on Orihime, I haven't even asked her that myself" said Kisuke "Now tell me, why are you here?"

***

"... so then we thought to come and ask you!" finished Orihime

"I see..." muttered Kisuke, looking at the floor, scratching his chin, deep in thought.

Ichigo hadn't gotten involved in the explanation, the look the girl was giving him was making him so nervous to the point of not being able to speak. The look wasn't accusing or angry, just curious and searching, not once in the last five minuets had she broken eye-contact with him, or even blinked. Her eyes were deep blue and penetrating, when she looked him in the eyes, it was like she could see straight into his soul.

"So do you have any idea who was the source of so much spirit pressure?" asked Uryu

"Huh?" asked Kisuke, snapping out thought "Oh, well I know Akemi was using her spirit energy about that time" he said nonchalantly, waving his hand towards Akemi, who didn't even notice the sound of her name.

"If you knew it was Ameki-san the whole time, why didn't you just say so?" snapped Uryu, annoyed

"It's just that... well she was in a space between an alternate reality and the Living World at the time, and it's highly unlikely you could sense _Akemi's_ spirit pressure from here."

Orihime looked slightly confused "Um, what do you mean?"

Uryu adjusted his glasses "He means that Akemi-san's spiritual pressure isn't strong enough to be sensed from the living world." he seemed to notice the penetrating look Akemi was giving him, similar to the one she'd been giving Ichigo only moments ago. "Um, not that I mean that you're weak!" he rushed, thinking that he'd offended her, though she didn't look offended "It's just that...!"

"So who was it then?" asked Chad, turning to Kisuke and cutting off Uryu. Akemi turned her gaze back to Ichigo

"That's what I'm not sure of... Akemi, can you sense anything? Or anyone?"

"No" she answered instantly and bluntly

"Are you even trying?" accused Uryu

This seemed to draw her attention away from the silent interrogation she seemed to be giving Ichigo. The look on her face was a mixture of hurt and mild surprise "I can sense no dangerous spirit pressures outside of this room." she said, her voice was soft and musical, even slightly child-like. In the smallest way, Akemi reminded Ichigo of Yuzu.

Kisuke smiled slightly and ruffled Akemi's hair "Little Akemi here is incredibly sensitive to spirit-pressure, she could sense even the slightest twitch of spirit pressure from over several kilometers away, if she tried that is." he seemed to just take in exactly what she'd said "What do you mean 'outside of this room'?"

She smiled at him "Nothing,"

Kisuke observed his sister cautiously for a moment, before turning back to the rest of the group, only Ichigo seemed to catch the sideways glance Akemi threw at him. "Well, until we're sure it was nothing dangerous, be on your guard and I'd advise you not to go anywhere alone, just in case."

* * *

Akemi looked up at her brother, a curious look on her face.

"Why did you lie?" she asked "Now they'll be worried for no reason."

He just smiled and ruffled her hair, before getting up from the table and walking away from her. For some strange reason, Akemi got the feeling that he wasn't.

* * *

Deep in thought, Kisuke stared at the ceiling. Now he understood why he'd woken up in the middle of the night. It was the strange spiritual pressure that Ichigo and the others had sensed that woke him up, not Akemi's, that had been too faint to wake him up, almost non-existent, it was just pure coincidence that the bursts of spiritual energy had happened simultaneously and that he'd sensed hers as well.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 - Looks like a Hollow**

Keigo and Mizuiro made their way to class, Mizuiro not paying the slightest bit attention to his friend's claims.

"I am telling you!" cried Keigo "There was this huge demon thing in the sky! It was kinda like a giant bat, but with this weird white mask on!"

"Of course there was Asano-san." humoured Mizuiro, who was not the slightest bit interested and was messaging on his phone.

Keigo yelled in annoyance "You don't believe me! Well there was! And would you stop calling me by my last name! We're supposed to be friends, stop being so formal! And..." he stopped, Mizuiro didn't even seem to be pretending to pay attention any more

"Um, excuse me..." said a voice, Keigo looked round. There was a girl with light-coloured hair and blue eyes stood by them, there was a pair of goggles on the top of her head, the strap hidden by her hair she didn't look any older than thirteen.

"Are you lost little girl?" asked Keigo, sounding meaner than he'd meant to, this girl had just interrupted his rant.

"Don't be so mean Asano-san, you'll scare her." scolded Mizuiro, who then looked at the girl "Hi there, did you lose your way, are you looking for your older sibling?"

"No, I'm, um, looking for class 1-3, I'm meant to transfer to that class today, but I got a little lost." she said, smiling nervously

Mizuiro managed to hold his surprise that this little girl was in their class "Oh, that's our class, we're heading there now. My name's Kojima Mizuiro, this is Asano Keigo, what's your name?"

* * *

Ichigo looked round at Rukia, who was just sat there as if she hadn't been absent for almost a week, it annoyed him that no one else in this class (apart from Uryu, Chad and Orihime) would have any recollection that Rukia had ever been missing.

"Where the hell have you been?" he asked in an undertone

"You remember that weird spirit pressure? Well even the people in Soul Society sensed it, so I was called back so they could ask me if I'd seen anyone or anything that could of caused it."

"And?"

"Well I hadn't, so they sent me back, with reinforcements"

"What do you mean reinforcements?"

"You'll find out later." she muttered as Ochi-sensei called at the class to settle down while she took the register.

"Right class, today we have a new student in our class, and I want you all to make her feel welcome." announced Ochi-sensei, before opening the door and speaking to someone outside "You can come in now."

A girl stepped into the classroom, it took barely two seconds for the muttering to start.

"But she's so young, there's no way she's in our year."

"She's so cute!"

"What's with those bandages? There all over her arms and legs."

"How old is she? Like, twelve? I've seen Junior High kids that look older than her."

Ochi-sensei was quick to quiet the class down. Ichigo couldn't help but think he remembered this girl from somewhere, Chad, Orihime and Uryu seemed to recognize her though.

"Class, this is Urahara Akemi, she is our new transfer student"

Now he remembered! She was Kisuke's younger sister, but people were right, she did look too young to be in this class, he distinctly remembered thinking she was about thirteen when he'd first met her. He wondered how she'd managed to get away with being fifteen. For the first time he noticed the bandages on her arms and legs, he wondered how she'd been injured, she hadn't been wearing those bandages last time he saw her.

"Now lets see..." Ochi-sensei scanned her eyes over the class, seeking out a vacant seat. "You can take the free seat in front of Chad!"

Akemi nodded and made her way over to the seat in front of Chad. Ochi-sensei went on to teach their first lesson. Ichigo shifted uncomfortably in his seat, she was staring at him again. Cautiously, Ichigo glanced at her and was instantly caught in her gaze. She smiled at him then looked out the window, Ichigo followed her gaze. There was a giant shadow being cast over the playground, but that didn't make sense, the sky was completely clear today. A violent wind picked up and the shadow got bigger as the thing casting it neared the ground, the entire playground was quickly enveloped in shadows. Eventually a giant bat-like creature with claws and a white hollow-mask on dropped itself down on the ground, crushing the concrete beneath it. It had sharp ridges running along the center of it's mask, down it's back and all the way down to the tip of it's tail. As it turned, it's long tail swung with it, dragging heavily across the ground, breaking up the concrete. Ichigo guessed it must be a hollow, which was odd, his badge hadn't started beeping like it usually would have if there was a Hollow around.

Akemi drew his attention back to her, giving him a meaningful look. Just as a sudden wave of heavy warmth passed over him, and he got the sudden urge to fall asleep, everyone around him seemed to get the same feeling as they drooped forward in their chairs or onto the floor.

"Wha-What the hell?" he muttered, then jumping in shock when he realized that he was half way out of his body, which was slumped onto his desk. Still wondering what on earth had happened, he stepped fully out of his body and looked round the class room, everyone had fallen asleep, even Rukia. He looked out onto the playground, the Hollow seemed to be sniffing the air, searching for something. "What's it looking for?" he wondered out loud

"Something to eat," answered Akemi, he hadn't noticed she was still awake too, he half expected to see a Gigai lying across her desk, but instead she was just sat there, looking out the window at the Hollow, completely calm.

"What the hell is going on? And why the hell is everyone uncontious?"

"It's how it hunts for food, it uses a high rev vibration that emanates from the ridges along its spine, the vibration disturbs the balance in your brain and knocks you out for a good few hours, this thing's lazy, it doesn't like food that puts up a chase. There seems to be two others, from what I can tell."

Ichigo watched the Hollow, it continued sniffing for 'something to eat' as Akemi put it, he guessed she meant souls. "You mean it knocks out souls as well?"

"I never said it ate souls now did I?"

"That's one messed up Hollow"

She rose from her chair "I never said it was a Hollow either."

"What the hell is it then?" he called after her as she began to leave the room

She stopped for a moment and without turning to face him, she spoke "I think you might call it a demon."

It took Ichigo a moment to get over the initial shock of it, but when he'd caught up with her, she was already outside, facing the 'Demon'.

"But it looks like a Hollow!" he complained, noticing the hole in its chest

"It has to take on that form in the living world, this is type three-o-six, if a human or even a soul reaper looks at it's true form, they'll burn from the inside out, they prefer to eat their prey while it's still alive, not a pile of ashes."

Ichigo was seriously confused, this hardly seemed like the Akemi that had entered their classroom as a transfer student only an hour ago, somehow she seemed like...

The 'Demon' sniffed them out, then turned round and hissed at them, but some how it sounded like a language.

Akemi laughed "You couldn't handle anyone's Zanpakto, _Hirakenete_, let alone mine."

It hissed at her again, this time Ichigo managed to make some syllables out of it.

"_Heret feretaio hiiren __Hisssreta_ roon."

"Like I said" Akemi spoke clearly and confidentially "You can't handle it"

"What did it say?" asked Ichigo in a whisper, Akemi seemed to understand what it was saying.

"First of all, it's a he, not an it and his name is _Hirakenete,_ he says he wants me to draw my Zanpakto."

"_Hiiiren hun heta grea yun Hisssreta_" _Hirakenete_ hissed, his amber eyes, switching to Ichigo, who got the feeling he looked hungry.

"No he will not." Akemi said, almost laughed "I want you and your siblings to go straight back to your nest, now."

"_Kerent hiima horea!_" he roared in protest

"And what have I told you about hunting within five parallels of me?"

Despite his mask, _Hirakenete_ suddenly looked a bit sheepish "_Kerent hiima horea..._" he muttered again

"There's plenty to eat in thirteenth parallel, eighth dimension, why aren't you hunting there?" asked Akemi patiently, the look on his mask went from guilty to dumb-struck in less than a second. "Please don't tell me you forgot."

_Hirakenete_ looked at the floor. Akemi sighed.

"You're still a kid so I'll let you off... this time... but _Terrekenete _should know better at his age. Oh well, just call them both here with you and I'll open a door to the hunting grounds."

He nodded and then howled, it was more wolf-like than he'd expected, and not particularly loud, but only moments later two creature's, similar to the first, but larger and definitely more terrifying, the ridges on _Hirakenete's_ back were nothing compared to the two-foot-long white blades on the backs of the other two. Their claws on the end of their fore-legs dug sharply into the ground, digging it up as they landed. The ends of their tails seemed to resemble something that had several dozen blades jutting out of it. The one on the left clearly differed from the two others, as it had three sets of blades running down it's back, unlike the other lager one, which only had one row.

The one on the right, who had a deep gouge running down one side of it's mask cutting through it's left eye, bowed deeply in to Akemi.

"_Urahara-sssama, it'ss been too long. We were not informed that you'd escaped._" he said, his low hiss almost mocking

Akemi didn't seem to have any time for small talk "Why are you hunting here _Terrekenete_? You know that any parallel containing intelligent life is strictly off limits."

"_But there iss no intelligent life here_" he hissed, laughing slightly, his two siblings didn't seem to share the joke.

"You don't want cross me _Terrekenete_." Akemi threatened

He laughed "_Of coursse not, Urahara-ssama, we will leave now._"

Akemi didn't say anything else as the three took several steps away from them and disappeared in a flurry of fire, which quickly disappeared along with them. Akemi sighed, muttering something like 'damn _Korentefura, _always bending the rules'. Then she caught sight of the look on Ichigo's face, completely dumb-struck, eyes wide, jaw dropped. She followed his line of sight. The sky was a warm orange colour, the sun was setting, Akemi had completely forgotten about the time flux effect.

She turned her head to look at him, her arms linked behind her back "It's hard to explain," she smiled apologetically "I barely understand it myself"

"Right..." he muttered, trying to get it into his head how hours had passed, when Akemi couldn't of been talking to those 'demons' for more than a few minuets. He drew his eyes away from the sky and to Akemi. The setting sun shone behind her, making everything about her glow. He wasn't sure that she had a Zanpakto, but what he was sure of was that she wasn't the average Shinigami. "What are you?" he muttered unintentionally

Her smile faded slightly "I'm not sure if there's a word for it in any of this planet's languages, but... we'd call people like me _Shurehemimai"_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 - Hell Hounds**

"Sh-Shurehemimai?" stuttered Ichigo,

"Yes." she said, now staring at the sky, a curious look on her face. "What's that?..." she muttered to her self, before pulling the goggles on the top of her head over her eyes. She remained still, keeping one hand at the side of her goggles, with her finger and thumb twitching the metal rim of the lens, as if adjusting them. Her eyes continued flicking over the sky. Ichigo couldn't tell what she was looking at, but he could see the violet symbols rushing across her left lens and the violet circles shrinking and growing on her right lens, moving with her eye.

"What are you looking at?" he asked,

"Residual spirit energy." she answered simply, raising her hand in front of her and turning it slowly, cautiously she ran it in a horizontal line in front of her, then back the same way, then looked at her hand again clenching it into a fist.

"And what are you doing?"

"Normally... I can absorb residual spirit energy if I want to, but this seems to avoid any contact with my skin."

"Maybe because it came from those Ho... um, _Demons_" Ichigo was still getting his head round everything that had just happened, trying to remember that they were Demons not Hollows. "Wait you can absorb spiritual pressure?!"

"Yeah... but it doesn't make a difference what it came from, and it didn't come from any of those type three-o-six, and I don't have any data on it..." she looked at him, the circles in the right lens widening and shrinking as she cast her eyes over him, she suddenly froze, her tongue ran across her lips, Ichigo couldn't quite put a name to the look on her face. "Um... yeah... and it's not yours." hastily, she drew her eyes away from him and looked round at the school building. "No one in there..." she pulled of her goggles, replacing them on the top of her head. "Oh this town gives me a headache..." she muttered,

"Mind explaining?" he asked, now thoroughly confused

"Yes I do mind explaining, as it's my business, not yours." she marched of back into the school, Ichigo quickly followed her back to the classroom, suddenly realizing something when he saw Rukia, slumped across her desk.

"Hey, you said that type, um..."

"Three-o-six"

"Yeah, Type three-o-six knock out even Shinigami, how come I'm not uncontious?"

She looked at him, slightly annoyed."Isn't it obvious?" she asked "You're a human substitute, type three-o-six's powers only work on Shinigami and humans because they've adapted them, just as the Shurehemimai have adapted against it. That badge of yours separated you from your human body when it fell uncontious and because your spirit-self is only part-Shinigami, it would only make you slightly groggy."

"But what are the..."

"I'm sure your Soul Reaper friends have been taught plenty about the Shurehemimai at that Soul Reaper academy, you can ask them later."

Ichigo had no idea why Akemi was suddenly being so cold towards him since she'd seen him through those goggles of hers, she'd been friendly enough before. And that look she was giving him, looking at him as if she despised his very existence.

* * *

Rukia could hardly catch her breath, the power the 'Demons' had used really took allot out of her. Ichigo had explained everything that Akemi Urahara had explained to him.

_Flashback_

_"Did you say Shurehemimai?" asked Rukia "Are you sure that's what she said?"_

_"Yeah, definitely" he said "Why?"_

_"Because if there are Demon's appearing in Karakura and there's one of her kind around, you _know_ that they've got something to do with it. Whatever else she tells you about the Shurehemimai, don't believe her, all of them are evil, lying, cheats, don't trust her." Rukia warned_

_"Have you met them before?" asked Ichigo_

_"No, but it's a well known fact in the Soul Society that none of them can be trusted."_

_"She seemed nice enough before she knew I was a substitute Shinigami."_

_Rukia rolled her eyes "Of course she _seemed_ nice. Shurehemimai are always using people to get what they want, we Shinigami are the only ones who see them for what they really are. They say they fight Demons, they're demons themselves."_

_Ichigo couldn't believe what he was hearing, there was no way Akemi herself was a Demon, just no way._

_"She told you she could absorb residual spiritual pressure? Humph, she didn't tell you the whole truth, I've heard about her, she's like the Bount, she lives by sucking people dry of their spiritual pressure, leaving them hollow shells, so if you know what's good for you for you, you'll keep your distance from her, and never, ever, let yourself be alone with her."_

_End Flashback_

Another Demon had forced it's way into the living world and they were all, Ichigo, Chad, Orihime, Uryu and herself, completely worn out from trying to fight it, the Demon showed no signs of weakening, and, surprise, surprise, no Akemi. Rukia had suspected from the beginning that the Shurehemimai had let it in, as well as the three from this morning. This one didn't look like a hollow, like Ichigo had described the three that had appeared earlier. This one looked like a giant, black, demon Rottweiler. It howled again as Uryu's arrow hit it's flank, although it made no mark, it seemed to anger the Demon Dog further. It bounded around blindly, crushing everything in it's path, until it found Orihime and made a beeline for her, razor-sharp teeth bared.

Orihime, suddenly frozen to the spot, completely forgot about her Santen Kesshun and used her arms to shield herself, only moments later something strong a sharp collide with her and she was thrown backwards, her ribs were being crushed under the weight of it paw, it's hot, rank breath on her face was making her stomach churn. When suddenly the weight was gone, she tried to move, but several of her ribs were broken, she could already feel blood seeping into her lungs.

Chad could barely contain his surprise when Akemi Urahara stopped his Brazo Derecho del Gigante with ease, even though she was facing the other way. Then, without saying a word, she used what he thought was flash-step and appeared in front of the demon-dog and threw it off Orihime as if it weighed hardly anything. There were two swords crossed on her back, each one about three inches wide and two and a half feet long, she gabbed hold of the hilt on the right side of her head and drew the sword, out of it's blood-red sheath, the other sheath was jet black. She slashed the demon-dog across the face, her sword cutting it like paper, it howled and backed away from her, shaking it's head wildly, throwing it's blood everywhere. Then she jumped directly in front of the demon-dog and cut a wide arc over it's head, leaving a sharp violet trail, blackened chains shot from out of the violet arc and coiled round the demon-dog tightly, pulling it into the arc. The dog howled and struggled, but it only seemed to be wasting it's energy as it was quickly dragged into the arc, which closed the instant the demon-dog was gone.

Akemi sheathed her sword and ran back over to Orihime. Even in the dark, Chad could see the blood starting to spill from her mouth. He ran over to her, quickly followed by Ichigo and Rukia, who had been on the other side of the demon and not seen what had happened to Orihime. Uryu was already by her side.

"Don't touch her," instructed Akemi, pulling Uryu gently away from her. Uryu allowed himself to be pulled away and Akemi kneeled by Orihime, pulling off her gloves and putting them in her back pocket, then pulling the goggles off the top of her head and over her eyes. She placed her hands, one on top of the other over Orihime's stomach.

"Get away from her, Shurehemimai!" yelled Rukia

"Would you rather I let her die? She can't heal herself now can she, Shinigami?" Akemi shot back, accompanied with a daggered look. She never took her hands away from Orihime as a violet spiritual pressure spread over both of them, until it completely covered them both.

Orihime's injuries healed before their eyes, the blood spilling from her mouth dripped backwards and the bloodstains on her top shrank back into her body. As soon as her wounds had disappeared, Orihime took a sudden breath, sitting bolt upright, gasping as if she'd just emerged from water. The violet spiritual pressure disappeared.

"You seem to be okay now." said Akemi, smiling at Orihime "Do you feel okay? Any pain?"

"Um, no, no I don't, I feel fine, thank you."

"No need to thank me." she said, waving her hand dismissively, before standing up, pulling Orihime up with her and facing Rukia "I can see the Shinigami have gotten no stronger in the past hundred years, they're still to weak to even scratch a Hell Hound."

"Hell Hound?" asked Uryu "It that what it was?"

"Yes, they normally have masters, but that one seemed to be wild"

"If it was wild, why didn't you just kill it?" snapped Rukia

Akemi gave her a bored look "Demons can't be killed, stupid." she said

"Then how do we know it wasn't one of yours?" pushed Rukia, obviously eager to catch her out

"Each species of Hell Hound is unique to it's master's soul personality, a, mine don't look anything like that, and b, a Hell Hound can't attack it's own master."

"You could of changed it's appearance and ordered it to attack you."

Exasperated, Akemi put her head in her hands, then looked up and muttered "I'm going to spend the rest of my life having this conversation" then she took a step closer to Rukia "Please, _please_, try to understand before one of us dies. In order for a Hell Hound to change it's appearance, either it's master would have to change their soul personality or it would have to change masters. If you had a soul connection with any animal, even a Hell Hound, you couldn't even get it to pretend to attack you, it wouldn't understand and wouldn't want to hurt it's master. Comprende?"

"Yes." Rukia hissed through her teeth, willing herself not to run her Zanpakto through her.

"Good." she spat, replacing her goggles on the top of her head, turning on her heel and starting to walk away "Cuz' I don't have time to waste on little boys who haven't even hit puberty yet."

Everyone apart from Akemi froze on the spot, turning their eyes to Rukia, waiting for her reaction from being mistaken for a boy, she seemed to be shaking slightly, the hand she'd had on her Zanpakto now twitching eagerly

"Little boy!?" roared Rukia, drawing her Zanpakto as she dived for Akemi. There was clash of swords as Akemi turned, sword in hand, no one had even seen her draw it.

"Do you not like being called little? Cuz' I'm terribly sorry, it's the truth, you're ridiculously short for someone your age." Akemi spoke as if she wasn't fending off Rukia's repeated hits, blocking them without breaking a sweat.

"No I don't like being called short!" yelled Rukia, though she was only inches from Akemi, putting all her strength against Akemi, who still hadn't moved from the same spot "And I'm a girl!"

Akemi parred away Rukia's sword, a look of pity on her face "Do you feel there's too much pressure on you when you admit you're a boy? Is that why you wear the girl's uniform at school? Does it make you feel comfortable? Safe?"

Rukia screamed in annoyance and her sword clashed against Akemi's "I. Am. A. Girl!"

"It's perfectly okay to feel that way though" continued Akemi, as if Rukia hadn't spoken "I've met people with this psychological disorder before, they've handled it well, maybe I introduce you, they could help you come to terms with it." she knocked Rukia's blade out of her hand as if she were fighting a complete novice. "He's actually a very close childhood friend of mine, very friendly."

Rukia was shaking with rage, "I. Am. Telling you. I. Am. A. Girl!"

Akemi nodded "O'course you are." she smiled knowingly and sheathed her sword.

Ichigo wasn't sure weather to laugh or point out to Akemi that Rukia was, in fact, a girl, but he got the feeling that that would be digging his own grave. Besides, Akemi seemed honestly convinced that Rukia was a boy.

"So, if no one minds I'll be going home now." she smiled, but then looked thoughtful "Then again, it doesn't matter if you mind or not, I'd leave anyway..." she shrugged dismissively and then continued to walk away.

"Wait!" called Chad, still wanting to know how she'd stopped his Brazo Derecho del Gigante so easily. Akemi turned to him, eyes widened slightly in mild surprise. Something about her caught him off guard and his question got caught in his throat. Fortunately Uryu spoke.

"Are a you a Shinigami?"

She looked instantly disgusted "How dare you put me in the same group as those fascists. I am not one of _them_" she spat, throwing a look at Rukia "I am a Shurehemimai, and as I've now worked out, it is loosely translated as _Demon Slayer._"

"A Demon Slayer?" repeated Uryu, slightly dumb-struck

"Yeah, we keep demons and impure souls in hell, they escape occasionally."

"Escape?" laughed Rukia "You let them out you filthy bitch." they only caught sight of Akemi's sword when it's tip buried itself in the bark of a tree at least fifteen meters behind Rukia, a small cut opened up on her cheek, Rukia caught her breath, her eyes widened in shock. Akemi hadn't even moved that time, she couldn't have, it just wasn't possible to move that fast, even with flash-step. Then, just as they'd registered the cut on Rukia's cheek, before anyone even had time to breathe, Akemi was stood directly behind Rukia, her sword now in her hand, the blade at Rukia's throat.

"I know what you Shinigami think of us Shurehemimai, but I won't hear such vile rumours about my people while I'm around. Just because of what one of us did, you mark us all like that, you low-life fascist? We don't think all of you are bent on world-domination just because of Aizen, do we?" hissed Akemi, her presence suddenly terrifying.

Rukia swallowed, feeling the blade press closer to her throat "I... I don't..."

"Oh, I know, it's just what the other Shinigami told you, but don't you think that you should get your own opinion on the Shurehemimai before judging us? Judging me?"

"Yeah, um, probably." muttered Rukia

Akemi gave a short laugh that made Rukia fear for her life, but then Akemi pulled her sword away from Rukia's throat and put it back in it's sheath, stepping to the side of Rukia, an apologetic look on her face "Sorry I had to do that, but you wouldn't of listened otherwise. Now that's out of the way..." Akemi smiled brightly and offered her hand "I hope we can be friends Rukia-san!"

"That's one hell of a mood-swing..." muttered Uryu

"You say something Quincy-boy?" asked Akemi under her breath, throwing him a look that scared him half to death

"N-no..." he stuttered, clutching his heart

Rukia ignored Uryu, debating whether it was worth befriending someone she'd heard such ill things about, she had saved Orihime's life and sent that Hell Hound back to hell... Rukia watched Akemi's hand cautiously.

"Oh come on!" sighed Akemi, "it's not like the universe is going to implode if a Shinigami and a Shurehemimai decide to try being friends!"

Resisting the urge to laugh at Akemi, Rukia reached out a clasped Akemi's hand tightly, only moments later she felt a strange spiritual pressure pushing outwards from their hands, the spiritual pressure was ridiculously strong and it wasn't coming from either her or Akemi... no way... had she been right, even though she was only joking? The spiritual pressure picked up in strength and speed, rushing round them, the ground began to tremble beneath their feet. Suddenly Akemi started laughing and clutching her stomach she was laughing so hard. The spiritual pressure disappeared Then she pointed at them "Your face!" she laughed "I can't believe you actually thought the world was going to implode!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" yelled Rukia furiously

Eventually Akemi settled down and stood up straight "Sorry about that, but it had more purpose than just to wind you up. I actually wanted to see if I could absorb that spiritual pressure that's been hanging round, last time I tried it just avoided me so I couldn't absorb it, but now it seems I can control it, though not absorb it... how annoying..."

Rukia suddenly looked horrified and Ichigo took a cautious step away from her.

Akemi rolled her eyes "For god's sake, whatever you've heard it's probably not true so calm down." she looked up at the sky, Ichigo recognized the distracted look on her face "Got to go now, bye!" before they could even ask her where she was going, she had disappeared from the spot.

"That's too fast to be flash-step..." muttered Rukia "And didn't you notice, she's hiding her spiritual pressure"

"So?" asked Ichigo

"That weird spiritual pressure we've been sensing all week could be hers, why would she hide it otherwise?"

"I thought you were friend's now." said Orihime, confused

Rukia half-laughed "Yeah right, but if she thinks we're friends, then she won't kill me, and she'll think I don't suspect her."

"Isn't that kinda harsh? She seems genuine to me, and she's Urahara's little sister, she can't be that bad." said Ichigo, tired of Rukia accusing Akemi of every little thing that happened, they'd barely even known her a day, it didn't seem right that they were marking her as evil because of what she was.

"I've told you already Ichigo, you can't trust a Shurehemimai"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 3 - Six Swords**

Masaru leaned back in his chair, smiling to himself, the thirteen highest-ranking officers, the _Hiretenme, _who were not as high ranking as himself of course, stood in front of him waiting for him to start the meeting, they all knew what this was about, they'd all heard the alarm, they'd all sensed the spiritual pressure. Not a single one of them seemed to worried about it, instead they were, if anything, joyous that their 'Angel' was alive. He frankly was just glad that he'd get to kill her now.

"You all know about the _disturbance_ I assume?" he said

No one said a word, no one moved.

He rose from his chair "Then as you all know _this girl_" an image of a girl with light hair and dark blue eyes, wearing black robes and a black haori with a violet sash round her waist, two sword were crossed on her back, four more tucked under her sash, flickered onto the display-screen "is a threat to _Verenite_ and the Shurehemimai society." There was a short, sharp intake of breath at his words "She has escaped from her imprisonment and now must be executed, however, we don't want to dirty our hand with such a small task do we? So I have come up with a simple solution." he held out his hand to the side and hundreds of ribbons darted out the ground, most of them pure-white, several red, until he found it, a single jet-black thread, he caught it in his hand and all the others faded away. There was a look of horror round the group as he held up a small glass bottle containing a glistening clear liquid that looked anything but innocent "I see you've all guessed what I'm going to do! Yes a single drop on her spirit thread and she dies a slow and painful death! Isn't it clever!" he said gleefully,

"You can't!" burst Akira, stepping forward in protest

Masaru turned to him, his acid-green eyes glaring into Akira's mismatched ones "Oh can't I?"

Akira dropped to his knees, his eyes misty and far away, his mind being tortured with horrifying images, unable to even scream.

Ignoring the man, Masaru uncorked the glass bottle and allowed a single drop to fall on the jet-black spirit thread in his hand, almost instantly a green stain started spreading across the thread like veins, feeding the poison into the spirit tread.

* * *

Whatever Ochi-sensei was saying only registered a sound in her brain, it was science, there was very little on this topic she didn't know already, having memorized the text book. Instead Akemi busied herself with spirit energy control, it seemed that she hadn't managed to lock all her remaining spirit energy behind the first spirit-gate, not surprising, seeing as she had been half conscious at the time, but she didn't want to risk opening the gate to lock it away, she couldn't make another spirit-gate, it would take too long... Then an idea occoured to her, she wouldn't have to open the gate, they were made of her spirit energy anyway, she could just reinforce them. Just as she began to visualize the gate and weave the spirit energy into its structure, she felt a tug at her stomach, then a sharp jab at the right side of her chest, right over her Soul-Chain. Then the muscles down the back of her throat began to twitch and convulse. She could feel her skin cooling and her stomach churning, without a second thought, she ran from the classroom, her feet instinctively finding their way to the nearest bathroom.

***

Her throat dry and sore, with a bad taste in her mouth, Akemi slumped against the cubicle wall, her insides still tensed up in repulsion against the new sensation. She had a vague recollection of passing out, but she had no idea what time it was now.

"Akemi-san?" someone called, it sounded like Orihime

Slightly surprised as she hadn't heard anyone come in, Akemi made a small noise indicating her presence, before using what surprisingly little strength she had to push herself off the floor and open the cubicle door, slowly making her way over to the sink, she had to get this horrible taste out her mouth. Orihime yelped in shock when she saw her.

"Akemi-san, you look terrible!"

Akemi wiped her mouth and looked in the mirror above the sink. Her skin was deathly pale and hollow, apart from the unhealthy pink tint round her eyes, which were blood shot and tired-looking "Oh, you're right I do..."

Orihime put one had on her own forehead, then one on Akemi's, comparing the temperature. She snapped her hand back "You're burning up!"

"Am I?" she muttered, slumping forward to rest her forehead on the cool glass. "Why did you come here?" she asked, not the slightest bit interested in her own health

"Well, you've been missing since third lesson, and..."

"What lesson is it now?"

"Um, it's lunch time."

"Lunch time? Damn..." had she really been out for two and a half hours? No way. "Kah!" she cried, it felt as if something was trying to tear her ribs apart. Cautiously, Akemi untied the bow round her neck and unfastened a few of her shirt buttons, as her breathing became slowly more restricted.

Orihime cringed "Akemi-san, what are you..." her words caught in her throat.

Strange green veins were working their way beneath Akemi's skin, starting on the right side of her chest and working their way down her right arm and up her neck. Her skin around the veins was turning sickly acidic green colour, the veins began to pulse and the green spread further, as if the strange green veins were a living body and the green-stains were it's blood.

* * *

Orihime had been using her Soten Kisshun for hours on Akemi, but something was still resisting, a powerful spiritual pressure, it had faded somewhat since she'd started, but it was still too strong, and according to Kisuke, the longer it took, the closer Akemi got to death and the more pain she'd be in.

Ichigo, Chad, Uryu, Kisuke and Yoruichi sat round the table, waiting for Orihime to finish healing Akemi, Rukia had made an excuse that she need to report back to Soul Society about something and left fairly quickly at the end of school. Kisuke glanced expectantly at Yoruichi "Well?" he asked, "What did you find out?"

"It's definitely Masaru, he knows that Akemi escaped." she said,

"No doubt about it then."

"Hm."

Ichigo tried to make sense of the conversation, but he didn't have a clue what they were on about.

"Who's Masaru?" asked Chad

"Captain-Commander of the Shurehemimai," explained Yoruichi "Or that's what he's calling himself, no doubt Akemi would have something to say about it though."

"Hm, yeah, she probably would." agreed Kisuke

"What did she escape from?" asked Ichigo

Kisuke and Yoruichi looked at each other then at Ichigo "You'd have to ask Akemi." said Yoruichi

There was a sudden crashing noise from the front of the shop, a yell of 'What the hell do you think you're...' from Jinta, before whoever had caused the commotion in the front of the shop, burst through the doors, practically destroying them. It was a man, with black messy hair and mismatched eyes, one dark brown, the other amber, he was wearing torn baggy jeans and a plain black t-shirt. He grabbed Kisuke by the front of his jacket.

"Where is Akemi-chan!" he demanded loudly, he appeared to be panicking

Someone followed in behind him "Hey, take it easy." said a man with dark spiky brown hair, he had sunglasses on and several piercings in each ear, he wore dark jeans with a white t-shirt and a blazer with the sleeves rolled up, there was an odd oblong shaped package strapped to his back.

"Akira-san, Kaito-san, it's been a while!" said Kisuke brightly, raising his hand in greeting

"Don't mess me around Urahara! Where is she?" the man demanded again shaking Kisuke violently

"She's right through the back Akira-san, but try not to destroy everything on your way."

Without hesitation Akira, opening the door this time, dived in the direction Kisuke had pointed. The other man, presumably Kaito, sighed and ran a hand back though his hair.

"Sorry about that, he's been slightly more..." he paused to think of a suitable word "insane... since we found out Akemi-chan was still alive. There's just no stopping him when he's like this." Kaito apologised, sitting down in the gap between Ichigo and Chad. He took of his sunglasses and hung them on the front of his shirt, revealing eyes so dark they were almost black, he leaned forward, folding his arms and resting them on the table, a slightly bored look on his face "So how's she holdin' up?" he asked

"Oh, I doubt that'll kill her, you know Akemi-chan, besides, the girl who's healing her, Orihime Inoue, has an unusual healing ability, so she'll be fine." explained Kisuke, the two men seemed completely oblivious to the fact that there were other people at the table

"I didn't mean that." said Kaito, "If she broke out of that prison on her own, there's got to be some damage."

"Prison?" exclaimed Ichigo

Kaito looked at him, as if acknowledging his existence for the first time since he'd entered the room, though he still looked bored "Who the hell are you?" he asked bluntly

Ichigo flinched at his blunt rudeness "Ichigo Kurosaki,"

"Kaito chojin, nice to meet ya" he said, not sounding in the least bit sincere, before turning back to Kisuke "So?"

"Well..." Kisuke looked grave, tilting his head up slightly so his eyes weren't completely concealed by shadows "It's been a century, I would of expected her to age a bit."

"What do you mean?" asked Kaito, a mild look of curiosity on his otherwise bored face

"She still looks about ten." said Yoruichi

"Hmm..." Kaito scratched his chin, eyes closed, deep in thought "At the rate of her previous growth... taking into consideration the time flux..." he eventually opened his eyes "She should look fifteen at the very least."

"Well, she doesn't, what do you think happened?"

"People say that Masaru put a one second time loop on the prison, which would of stopped her Gigai ageing, but it would of caught up with her spiritual body soon enough, unless it got caught in the residual energy of the time loop and recreated it's own residual time loop, so it can no longer age, hence Akemi's spiritual pressure would be limited to second gate without causing serious lasting damage to her Gigai, third gate would be pushing it, but it would of taken her at least forth gate to bust open the brace, which means..."

Ichigo stared open mouthed at him, what the hell was he on about? Uryu and Chad looked as confused as he did, Yoruichi seemed to be barely keeping up, only Kisuke looked completely normal, as if he understood.

"Because she used fourth gate without the block-aid charms, it strengthened the residual time loop and put the Gigai into a time lock, which is why she hasn't aged." concluded Kaito, who now appeared be speaking to himself, although he'd sounded as if he might drop off to sleep any minuet.

"Right..." said Kisuke slowly, taking it all in "Would you be able to fix it? That Gigai was made in _Verenite_ so I don't really understand the finer workings of it, let alone time loop synchronisation."

"Sure, whatever..." he muttered, running his hand back through his hair.

"Wait, so are you a Shurehemimai too?" asked Uryu,

"No I'm the Easter bunny," said Kaito with dull sarcasm "What the hell do you think four-eyes?"

Uryu stayed silent after that. They continued to wait for Orihime to finish healing Akemi.

"Kaito-san, I hope you don't mind me asking" said Kisuke "But what's in the bag?"

Wordlessly, Kaito untied the strap and lay the package on the table, untying the knot that held it shut. As the outer wrapping fell open, a dark blue silk layer became visible, Kaito carefully unfolded the silk wrapping, revealing six swords. Four of them looked identical, plain blue sheath and blue hilt, the other two however didn't look nearly as ordinary. The first, had a black sheath that glinted at unusual burnt orange in the light, its black hilt had strands of golden thread woven into the decoration. The second, was completely jet-black, with a blood red hilt-strap, there was something almost mesmerising about it, like it was pulling you in, the only way to describe it was like looking into a black hole.

Unconsciously, Ichigo reached out his hand toward the jet-black sword, hypnotised by it. Kaito quickly wrapped it back inside the blue silk wrappings, watching Ichigo carefully.

Ichigo swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat "What was that?" he asked quietly, still staring at the sword, though it was wrapped now

"Fenikkusu, Akemi's Zanpakto." said Kaito, now with some caution in his voice

Still memorised from the sheer power he'd felt coming from the Zanpakto while it was still sheathed, Ichigo barely had the will to continue talking.

"But what about the other five?" asked Chad

"That one," Kaito pointed at the other black sheathed one "is Gorudentora, Akemi's Yokaisureiya, a Shurehemimai's equivilant to the Shinigami Zanpakto, we have both."

"And the other four?"

"Simply something Akemi likes carrying round." he explained, before yawning

"She carries wound six swords?!" exclaimed Ichigo, snapping out of his daze

"She certainly will be glad to get these back..." said Kisuke "She wasn't too happy about having to fight with 'strange swords' as she put it."

* * *

"W-who are you?" asked Orihime, when a strange man with mismatched eyes burst into the room.

He didn't seem to notice her at first, he dropped to his knees by Akemi's head and tried to reach out and touch her, but his hand was repelled by her Soten Kisshun "Huh? What...?" then he noticed Orihime "What's this?" he asked her.

"M-my Soten Kisshun, it-it's a sort of healing technique." she stuttered

He stared at her, stunned "You can't have barely known Akemi-chan a day and you're helping her?"

Orihime, blushing slightly, looked at Akemi "She saved my life, even though she barely knew me, even if that hadn't happened I'd heal her anyway." she said quietly

"What's your name?" he asked

"Orihime Inoue,"

"I'm Akira Watasumi, thank you for helping Akemi-chan, but I can't help noticing you're looking a bit worn down, would you like some help?" he asked politely

"Um... how?" she asked, wondering if he could use the same healing technique that Akemi had used on her

"Well, it might be easier if she wasn't in her Gigai... hold on..." he pulled on a pair of gloves, similar to the one Rukia used to use to push Ichigo's Shinigami self out of his body, then put his hands underneath Akemi as if he was about to pick her up, but instead, he only picked up the Gigai, leaving behind Akemi's Shurehemimai self. Orihime gasped.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 - Type twelve  
**

Orihime gasped, Akemi looked at least four years older, and she was dressed in black pants like a shinigami's and what looked like two Haori's, one three-quarter-sleeved white one with a plain black sleeveless one over the top and a violet sash round her waist. There were white arm-protectors bound round her forearms with black straps. But the clothing was heavily blood stained.

Seemingly unfazed by this, Akira untied the knot in the sash and pulled the haori open, revealing a cropped, black, strapless top. He held his hands over Akemi's stomach, and a green glow spread from his hands, over Akemi. Orihime was speechless.

Suddenly Akira looked up, his eyes widened in amusement, then he sighed, took his hands away from Akemi and touched the tips of his fingers to the center of his chest, they glowed for a moment before his body separated from it's Gigai, which fell sideways next to Akemi. He wore what looked like standard Shinigami uniform, but with the sleeves rolled up to the shoulders, and two swords tucked into his belt. There was a silver band round his right bicep, it looked like a thin snake with it's tail in it's mouth.

* * *

Kaito sighed exasperatedly.

"Of all the times..." he muttered, touching the tip of his middle finger against the center of his chest, a moment later the point under his fingers glowed brightly for a moment, and he separated from his Gigai, which slumped limply onto the table. Kaito stood, now wearing black pants like the shinigami's with a long plain black Haori and completely bare chested. There were two swords tucked into his belt.

"What is it?" asked Kisuke, looking outside, in the same direction as Kaito

"Type twelve." he answered in a blunt monotone "Have you got anything that can block Akemi's spiritual pressure until I can lure them away?"

Kisuke looked thoughtful "Yes, I think so, but knowing Akemi she's healed up already and even if she hasn't she'll want to join in the action."

"Then you'll just have to keep her here."

Akira stepped through the doors and looked at Kaito, who nodded, then they disappeared as fast as Akemi had the other night.

"You should go with them" suggested Kisuke

* * *

Heavy clouds blocked out the moon and stars, leaving them in almost complete darkness. Winds blew heavily through the thicket of threes, although not so much as bothering the two men stood between the trees. Akira looked across to Kaito, who was looking up at the sky, a look of faintly angered curiosity on his face. It took allot to wipe the bored look from Kaito's face, of all people, he should know. Standing close to him, Akira reached out and gripped Kaito's hand, asking a silent question with the small gesture. 'What is it?'.

"This is all part of something bigger. I don't understand it yet, but the sudden urge for demon's to break into Karakura, Masaru taking control of _Verenite_ and Aizen leaving Soul Society for Hueco Mundo are only parts of it."

For a moment Akira merely observed the man, fighting off the urge to throw his arms around him. Like Akemi, Kaito had an extraordinary gift, though it seemed that they weren't similar in any way. Kaito could work things out without having all the pieces of information and fill in the gaps with numerous possibilities with different cause and effect, just like in battle, when he could asses his opponents strength and speed just by looking at them. Kaito caught him looking and smiled briefly, pulling him by his hand and kissing the top of his head and gazing deeply into the shorter man's mismatched eyes.

"It's fine." he promised, before stepping back from him, letting go of his hand and looking off into the trees. Only moments later a Shinigami with a Zanpakto as long as he was tall stepped out of the trees, accompanied by a Quincy and an abnormally tall tanned man. "Kurosaki right?" asked Kaito.

"Yeah," he said,

Kaito looked at the other two "I didn't catch your names."

"Yasutora Sado"

"Uryu Ishida"

"Right, and why are you here?" asked Akira

"Urahara told us to come." replied Uryu

"And?" he pushed,

The three looked blankly at each other, Kisuke had never actually mentioned why they should go with them. Kaito rolled his eyes and resumed staring at the sky. Akira wasn't sure weather to look apologetic or not. Suddenly everything fell silent, the leaves stopped rustling and an eerie mist rolled about their feet. Ichigo shivered, it felt as if the temperature had dropped several degrees in an instant.

Akira and Kaito each drew one of their swords.

"Draw, _Sora no yumi_." said Kaito, in a low monotone. His sword glowed and elongated and a strange oblong bag appeared on his back appeared, only after it stopped glowing did they realise it was a quiver of arrows and the elongated sword was now a bow, nearly five feet long.

"Strike down your enemies, _Umihebi_." Akira's sword split in two and nearly halved in size, the blade splitting into three so he was now holding a sai in each hand.

Although they didn't quite know what was going on, Uryu and Ichigo took the hint and drew their weapons, Chad waited for the right moment. Reflexively they maneuvered into a circle facing outwards. Shadows shifted in the trees around them, although no one could feel or sense anyone out there, there was something, something watching them.

* * *

Akemi waited patiently for Orihime to finish healing her internal wounds, though she could feel her hands itching to get their grip round the hilt of Gorudentora. She could feel the presence of both her swords in the next room, both of them calling to her. Though Fenikkusu was surprisingly quiet, nothing more than the slight nagging presence in her inner world, normally her Zanpakto would be complaining about her defeat, telling her how weak she was, how she didn't deserve to wield her. She sighed and opened her eyes.

Orihime was kneeling by her, concentrating hard on her Soten Kisshun, not noticing that Akemi was awake.

"Hey, Inoue-san?"

"Akemi-cha...! um, I mean, Urahara-san? Um..." Orihime had jumped at the soft, mature voice that left Akemi's lips and addressed her, so different from the childish pitch she'd spoken in only hours before. "Yes?"

"Do you think that...?" she stopped, reconsidering "Never mind..." she turned her head the other way

Blinking dumbly Orihime wondered what she'd been going to ask, before she remembered what she'd been wanting to ask "I-if you don't mind me asking... why were you imprisoned?"

The question caught Akemi off-guard and she through Orihime a questioning look.

"U-u-um, that is-if you don't mind me asking, it's just that, Urahara Kisuke-san mentioned something about it..." she trailed off, looking at the ground, waiting for Akemi to give her some kind of answer. When she didn't, Orihime looked up, Akemi was still lying on her back, though her head was turned away from her, ignoring her.

Akemi cast her mind back. Why had she been imprisoned? She only remembered waking up in that place, inside a faux-body, with no swords (Yokaisureiya, Zanpakto or otherwise) and her spirit pressure completely drained. The soul society had only been a guess, they'd always been looking for ways to get rid of the Shurehemimai, seeing as destroying them wasn't an option, they must of started locking them away instead and waited for them to waste away. Kisuke hadn't mentioned anything about attempted genocide on the Shinigami's part and she could feel Akira's and Kaito's spiritual pressure in the area. Now she was out of that faux-body, she could smell the blood on her clothes, her blood.

Suddenly Akira's and Kaito's spiritual pressure increased, they'd released their Shikai. Just as she began to wonder why, she felt the presence of countless Type twelve-mark-two.

* * *

Kaito knocked an arrow into his bow, drawing back the string so his left arm was fully extended and his right hand was at the corner of his eye, the bow resonated a heavy, smoke-like, blue-grey spirit energy. His eyes filled with unbreakable concentration, he squinted into the trees ahead of him, then released the arrow. The spirit energy coating the arrow was quickly blotted out by thick shadows, it landed with a dull 'thwack' into the bark of a tree concealed by shadows, quickly accompanied by an inhumane, blood-curdling screech. Then, where the arrow had hit the tree, the shadows scattered, leaving the still quivering arrow, still coated with the smoke-like spirit energy, embedded in a think split down the center of a tree.

Akira glanced at Kaito, who nodded in confirmation. He pointed the sai in his right hand into the trees, he hissed something and a bright white snake shot out of the longest blade. Moving at an alarming speed the snake, that seemed to be glowing an eerie light, slithered into the trees, flushing out more shadows with more screeches as Kaito shot another resonating-spirit-pressure arrow in the opposite direction. The apparently living shadows grouped together, now pushing their way between the two trees that Akira and Kaito had forced them between. When they suddenly burst forward, now taking on partially solid shapes.

They looked like nothing but smokey black cloaks, though razor-sharp, white, blood-stained claws stretched out in front of them. The only recognizable faces they had, grotesque, blood-stained white masks fixed in permanent snarls, seemed to vary on where they were, some had them in a vague shoulder-like area, others seemed to have them in odd places like on their backs.

Backing away from the one that had darted towards him, Ichigo hastily pulled his sword off his back, and swung it toward the creature, shocked when the blade swung harmlessly through the creature, he stumbled and the creature darted for him again. He only just managed to dodge when it's claw swiped for his face, catching his shoulder instead. Almost crying out in shock more than pain, those claws were sharper than they looked, Ichigo this time managed to duck it's second swipe , which was seemingly all he could do.

Then, without the slightest warning, a large saber-toothed-tiger wearing heavy-looking black amour edged with gold lept out of the trees and snapped up the shadow creature in its powerful jaws, crushing it into nothing. Almost terrified of the creature, Ichigo stepped back cautiously, the tiger was nearly as tall as him. It's tail flicked and it's head turned towards Ichigo, who froze and didn't dare to move as it approached him. Its powerful jaws dangerously close to his face, all it did was nudge his injured shoulder, almost instantly the wound closed up and it backed away from him, gave him a look of recognition and then turned its back to him. As Ichigo looked round the tiger he saw all the other shadow creatures had frozen solid. It gave a low growl and the creatures gave small screeches, then the tiger snarled and gave another threatening growl, louder than any of them though possible and sounding more like a roar, the creatures screeched in bloodlust and dived for the tiger.

* * *

Akemi halted in her tracks. There was something not quite right here, something was off, way off. To start off, that really tall guy, what was his name? Yasutora something? Although people called him Chad which was weird, anyway, he was lying on the ground in front of her, seemingly uncontentious, but she could sense the same spirit pressure only a few hundred yards ahead. She frowned, to her the one in front of her felt like the real one, so that meant someone was mimicking him, though it didn't seem like regular behavior for a twelve-mark-one or two. Speaking of which, there didn't seem to be a mark-one anywhere in Karakura, which was odd, a mark-two was incapable of leaving a two-spirit-mile radius of a mark-one.

Mentally debating what to do, her mind was one-hundred-years out of use, she crouched down by this 'Chad' and touched the tip of her fingers to his forehead. His eye-lids flickered briefly.

"Hey," she said, nudging him awake, if Akira had done this he'd of woken up instantly "Yasutora, wake up."

His eyes opened, then widened in shock at the sight of her, before he sat bolt upright.

"Can you remember what happened before you were knocked out?" she asked abruptly, as Akira had so often told her, she had a terrible bed-side manner.


	6. Chapter 6

**Note to reader: I am an idiot and have made a stupid mistake in translations (or reading translations, i'm not sure)**

**Akemi's**** Yokaisureiya**** is called Ōgon no tora, not Gorudentora  
**

* * *

**Chapter 6 - Golden Fire**

Akemi waited and watched from the shadows, that 'Chad' kid standing patiently behind her. They watched as the armored tiger fought off the twelve-mark-two with ease, throwing flames from it's jaws causing the shadows to become nothing more than that. The small part of her mind that wanted to help them eased off a bit as she watched her old team-mates fight. It seemed Akira had perfected his Shikai, even though he'd been fourth seat when she'd last seen him he could barely hold his Shikai, though he was an excellent medic and there was no doubt it her mind that Kaito could now pull off a Bankai (it had been highly unstable last time she'd seen it) maybe he was even a captain now, or capable of being one, as he still seemed to be wearing a vice-captain's haori.

Her eyes wandered over to the Kurosaki kid, what had he said he was? A _substitute _shinigami? Were they getting so lazy that they were employing humans to do their dirty work now? Anyway, he was clearly no ordinary human, and that was one hell of a Shikai, though he seemed to have it in that state all the time, did he have that little control over his spiritual pressure? It wasn't just that, she could also see a hollow's presence stirring behind his eyes, threatening to take over.

She could still remember how terrifying that was.

Having so little control over it's strength, unable to even use a bankai without as good as giving it an invitation to take over your body. That guarded look in his eyes, she'd seen it so often in the new Shurehemimai she'd seen over her years, few had even been so stubborn as to reject the help they offered and continue to force their hollow into submission, often they were engulfed by their hollow and crushed by their own spirit pressure.

_'Y'all gonna help him ain't cha?'_ purred the soft tones of Hakemi, her hollow. Thankfully her hollow stayed 'inside' her head.

'Well I can't just let him die.' She argued back (via thought).

_'I never said he'd die without cha help'_

'Well neither did I, but he's only human.'

_'Eh-eh, wrong!' _she chimed _'Half-shinigami'_

'You're shitting me.'

_'Ain't no human got potential like that, girl, and ain't no human that tasty-lookin' neither'_

'You gonna object if I help him?'

_'No way babe, if he looks that good, I wanna meet his hollow. Damn _fi~ne_.'_

Akemi sighed inwardly, what a pervert.

_'And y'all might wanna step in soon honey, that totally eatable guy behind ya looks worried 'bout his buddies. And I think Kai knows ya here'_

Slowly, Akemi reached back to grab hold of _Ōgon no tora_, being greeted with a wave of warmth as her fingers closed round it's hilt. Electricity shot down her arm as she pulled her sword half-way from it's sheath.

"Wait here" she whispered to 'Chad', who didn't nod, but she knew that he heard her. _'One...'_ Hakemi counted for her _'Two... Three.'_

"Kill them where they stand, _Ōgon no tora_" she muttered as she bolted round the perimeter they were fighting in, Ōgon no tora trailing behind her, fire licking from the blade, leaving a trail that clung to everything it touched. Instantly the Twelve-mark-two sped to the middle of the circle, hissing, spitting and screeching in fear of the golden-red flames. They crowded together, climbing on top of each other, as if trying to escape the flames by moving upwards.

* * *

All Ichigo felt was a gust of wind rush past him and then the wind seemed to catch fire, but it wasn't a regular fire. It flickered a bright golden-red and clung to the ground and trees, though it didn't burn it. In the blink of an eye a ring of golden-fire lined the edge of the clearing they were fighting in. Then he was defend by the terrified screeches of the shadow creatures as they rushed into the middle of the circle, mixing into a confused, mangled heap of dark and decay.

Barely a moment later, a sword, burning with the same flames as the circle, shot from above them and struck the center of the mass of the shadows, and burning them up instantly, just leaving the sword, it's tip burred in the ground, still flaming. He only saw Akira's face light up with excitement before a dark figure flipped out of the sky, and landed elegantly of the hilt of the sword, standing on their toes. Fire lept up and out from her sword, the flames licked her ankles tenderly. His eyes followed up their slender shape. Smooth curves, perfect breasts. Long, white-blond waves of hair caught his attention, it shone like silk in the light of the fire, her goggles still stayed on the top of her head. Her hair framed a slim face with angelic features and long lashes that framed deep blue eyes that never seemed to end.

"_A-Akemi..._?" he managed to stutter, she looked years older now, definitely not a child any more, even though that had only been a few hours ago. She looked over to him, directly at him, then she smiled and Ichigo swore he forgot how to breathe.

The sword had cast a net of fire over the ground, and though it flicked against their skin, and felt hot, it didn't burn. If Kaito, Akira and Akemi hadn't been looking at Chad (Uyru seemed just as captivated with the sight of Akemi as he was) he doubted he would of noticed.

Where Chad had been stood only moments before, there was now a tall creature wearing a thread-bare cloak that clung to the skeletal form beneath it. It resembled the shadow creatures from before, but it was taller and it had more of a shape. It's claws were bony and so stained with stale blood you could hardly distinguish them as white, It's face was shadowed by it's hood, wisps of smoke curled from it, turning the air around it dark and heavy. Everything seemed to fall silent, even the crackling flames, the only thing that could be heard was the thick, rasping sound of it's breathing. It seemed to be floating just above the ground, it's arms and head hanging limp. A black mist hung round it's being, making the air seem heavier and dimming the flames around it to almost nothing.

No one moved.

Akemi nodded at Akira, who nodded back then crouched down and pressed his palm against the ground, muttering an incantation, moments later a large dome appeared over them, it kinda looked like a large green bubble. Kaito sheathed his sword "I'll leave this one to you Captain." he said, before stepping back to lean against a tree, folding his arms

"Thanatos, child of Achlys, I recognize you" she said coolly, as if she were having a normal conversation

The creature looked up at Akemi, whose face was plain and confident, if anything, smirking. Now it had lifted it's head up, the bottom half of it's face was visible. It's lips seemed to be turned inwards and it's skin was ancient and grey. It opened it's mouth to reveal rows of shark-like teeth.

"_Akemi Urahara, ... Captain of 2nd squad, ... third Omega ... and daughter of the Bastet... I recognize you..._" it stopped ever few words to take a hollow, rasping breath, like it was on the verge of death _"and will devour your heart." _it finished, raising it's hand sharply and a howling black smog lept out from it's cloak, dousing the flames and speeding for Akemi.

All but the original ring of flames had been put out by the smog, plunging them into almost-darkness. Before anyone could blink, the smog had completely surrounded Akemi, hiding her from view. But the smog collapsed in on it's self and shrank back from Akemi, only she wasn't there. Her haori's and sash hung in the air where she'd been only moments ago. The instant that the smog retracted, a flash of silver slashed through it's chest from behind and then stabbed straight through it's chest.

"Kill them where they stand, _Ōgon no tora_" said Akemi, the blade burst into flames, though they still didn't seem to touch the creature "Way of binding,_ Eien no kusari"_

Red-Hot chains shot from the blade and coiled round the creature, it screamed in agonizing pain as smoke rose from where the chains burned. She withdrew her blade and slashed it through the air over its head. Just like before, with the Hell Hound, chains shot from the glowing curve in the air and pulled the screeching creature into it. As the curve disappeared, so did the dome. Akemi flicked her sword at the ground and the flames gathered back to the blade before going out. Looking slightly bothered by something, Akemi pulled her goggles on and stared straight ahead of her for a while. The armored tiger padded over to her, and nuzzled it's nose into her side, purring loudly.

"Who called you here?" she asked, scratching his ears. Shocking them all by suddenly shrinking down to the size of a large orange tabby cat, it's armor disappearing, and jumping into Akemi's arms. The cat lay on it's back and mewled loudly. Ichigo could of continued to stare for ever if someone hadn't tapped his shoulder. He turned, it was Chad, who looked instantly shocked as he turned.

"What?" he asked

Chad, pointed at Ichigo's chest, there was a large bloody gash creeping across his chest. Ichigo gawked, he wasn't even in any pain, how hadn't he noticed?

"Akira sort Kurosaki out before he looses any more blood and dies." ordered Akemi, in a stern, military-like tone, putting the cat down on the floor and crouching down to where the creature had been stood, or rather, floating, examining the ground "I don't want a human death on my hands, it'll only aggravate the Shinigami, and neither do I want to be given a ban from demon hunting in this parallel, so let's not give head council a reason to and get this cleared up quickly shall we?" she lifted her goggles and looked at Akira and Kaito, who just stared in shock, she gave them a stern look, before she couldn't help but burst into a smile "Just kidding" she said in a much lighter tone, then, looking at Akira, she pointed at Ichigo "But seriously."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 - Betrayal**

"What d' ya reckon Isamu? Worth worrying about?" Akemi asked the cat quietly, so none of the others could hear. She was looking back at the ground, there was something there, some kind of anomalie, she couldn't hope to see it without her goggles, but seeing it with her goggles was giving her a headache. Isamu pawed the air where the anomalie was, then quickly snatched his paw back, as if he'd been burned, and wound himself round Akemi's ankles, hissing and spitting. "I'll take that as a yes." she muttered, dusting her hands off as she stood up.

Before she'd even brought herself up to full height, something silver flashed by her cheek. Akemi only just caught a glimpse of Akira's sai slicing through the air. She brought her gaze directly to him, a mild look of shock and amusement on her face. He had a stony look on his features. The others (even Kaito, a little bit) looked shocked. Then she touched her fingers to her cheek. Blood. But it stung like hell, there was poison too. There was only a tiny part of her that wondered what was going on, but the rest of her remembered how... persuasive... Masaru can be. Trying to ease into the situation Akemi spoke.

"It's been a while since you've able to cut me Kira." she said lightly, wiping away the blood on the back of her hand. He didn't speak. "But... why the poison?" she continued. Then wiped more blood off her cheek and licked it off her thumb "So I'll die in six minuets?" she guessed, she could see his jaw working now "Bit cowardly isn't it, killing someone with poi-"

"Shut up..." he growled, wildly out of character. Akemi decided not to push him. He held his hand out directly in front of him. Akemi didn't have to be warned, she knew what was happening the second he'd started to raise his arm, she leaned her head to the right as the Sai shot back past her cheek. He span the Sai threateningly "Captain... It's been my mission to kill you for the past hundred years."

Akemi folded her arms. "If you'd really wanted to kill me you would of done so already. Instead you continue to talk with-"

"I said shut up!" he yelled, now making Akemi and Kaito wonder if he was still the same person. "I will kill you, but I need something from you first captain."

Interested as to what he could want, Akemi raised her head from the sympathetic tilt. "What?" she asked curiously

Akira threw his Sai down, so their points embedded themselves into the ground. Surprised that she didn't have time to react, the very moment the sai had made contact with the earth, thick, hissing snakes shot from the ground, and wrapped themselves so tightly round Akemi's arms and legs to the point of breaking bones. Akira snatched the Sai up again, marching towards her. When he was stood no more than a foot away from her he stopped. Akemi looked up at her taller third-seat.

"What's he done to you?" she asked, no loud enough for the others to hear.

_'_'_There's something in his eyes babe...'_' said Hakemi, serious now

Instead he span the Sai in his left hand and sliced deeply across her chest, from shoulder to shoulder, so deep she'd felt it scrape her bones. Despite the pain, she looked deeply into his mismatched eyes and found what she was looking for. What Hakemi had been talking about. Instead of playing his weakness like she usually would of done, she shut up and stuck the pain. Isamu sensed her decision and ceased his growling and sat down, but not willingly. Akira tucked the Sai into his belt and extend his hand out towards her wound. His hand glowed with sea-green spirit energy, but instead of healing the wound, the skin started to shrink back so the top of her ribs and her collar bone were exposed. Akemi couldn't scream, she wouldn't.

_I__ve been though worse... I've been through worse... the change was worse... _she tried desperately to convince herself that the pain was nothing.

Akira continued to extend his hand forwards, until his hands sunk, ghost-like, through her rib cage.

"Stop this..." she whispered through her teeth. She felt his hand tense slightly inside her chest and blood shot up her throat, pouring from her mouth. He continued to reach until he grabbed hold of something. And instantly Akemi knew what it was Masaru wanted Akira to get, he was the only one who could.

'_Shitting mother fucker!_' ' screamed Hakemi furiously '_Get your stinking greasy hands out!_' '

Akemi felt a tug, beneath all the pain and blood and Hakemi's screaming, it was deep inside herself, but not her physical being. Akira began to withdraw his hand and Akemi felt her soul begin to split in two.

* * *

Ichigo couldn't move, this was like something out of a horror movie with some kind of psychopath. He could see the look of utter excruciating pain in Akemi's eyes, but she refused to scream. Suddenly his own would seemed like nothing more than a paper-cut as Akira began to reach into Akemi's now completely open wound, he heard Uyru throw up in the trees behind him. It was horrifyingly and no doubt the sight would haunt him, but he couldn't look away. Akemi gagged and blood began to spill from her mouth. A moment later Akira began to draw his hand from Akemi's chest, pulling something out.

At first glance it looked like a soul, but Ichigo knew better. He'd seen something inside himself that resembled this, except this one looked like Akemi. Jet black hair, ghostly white skin, and robes in the negative colours of Akemi's actual clothing. When completely separated from Akemi, the hollow slumped. Akira held the hollow by the front of it's Haori.

The hollow took a few breaths, then looked up, her black and yellow eyes meeting Akira's.

"I ain't goin' that easy boy." she laughed, before springing into the air and grabbing hold of the single sword on her back. Ichigo recognized the black and gold hilt, it was Ogon no tora. Akemi now only had the one sword Kaito had identified as Fenikkusu on her back.

The Hollow-Akemi didn't get far, Akira had disappeared and instantly re-appeared behind her, he stabbed both his sai into her back. "Way of binding" he said "_Eien no kusari_" chains shot out from the sai and coiled round her like snakes. Before she could try to break out, Akira grabbed the end of one chair and disappeared with the hollow-Akemi.

* * *

Akira ignored the loud swearing of Hakemi as he traveled through the vortex to Verinite. Something bothered him. From when he'd cut her chest open, to when he'd pulled out her hollow, not once had Akemi broken her gaze, she'd not once looked away from his eyes.

* * *

Akemi lay in bed, for the second time that week, unable to move from pain. Kaito seemed to understand that she didn't want Orihime heal her wound, even without her saying so, though she couldn't explain it either, he seemed to understand too. Every inch of her body hurt like hell, so she hadn't been able to get any sleep at all for only-god-knew-how-long (though she had been drifting in and out of consciousness). Time didn't seem to pass properly when you could barely think straight. She was vaguely aware of Ichigo and the others visiting once or twice, though there was never more than two people (excluding herself) in the room with her. Kaito rarely left the room, he just stayed in the room with her. Right now he was by the sliding doors leading out to the back yard, with the door open a few inches. He stared out onto the garden for a while, before lighting a cigarette.

"I wish you wouldn't smoke..." she croaked

He didn't reply, not surprised that Akemi had the energy to speak

"Why does it bother you so much?" she asked, by _it _she meant the 'Akira Issue'

"_It's been a hundred years captain, people change._" he said, speaking in Verinitain (**AU: The language the demon spoke in, in chapter 2**)

"_Well I didn't exactly expect my entire squad to believe that Masaru is wrong in what he's doing, though he is._" she said, also speaking in Verinitain

"_No, not like that... I mean... it's complicated._" he sighed

"_I'm not exactly going anywhere._" she pointed out

"_I spent... allot of time with Akira in the past hundred years, he... we, well... Masaru always tried to convince us to his way of thinking, but neither of us agreed, Akira always seemed so solidly against him. I don't know what changed._"

"_I do, Masaru's patience wore thin. His Zanpakto, Maindo osekkai, controls the minds of others._"

"_How can you be so sure thats all it is?_" he snapped

"_He was still calling me captain._" she said simply

He didn't respond. The hand holding the cigarette rested on his knee, he continued to stare out onto the garden.

"_So you spent allot of time with Akira? I thought you two hated each others guts_."

Kaito took a puff of his cigarette and thought for a moment "_Like I said captain, it's been a hundred years, people change..._" he hesitated "_... relationships chage_" he added in a half-mutter, taking another drag.

Akemi smiled and laughed as much as the bandages would allow "_I always did say you two should get a room or kill each other._" she said. Even though she could only just see his face, she caught the faint blush across his cheeks.

"_So what are you going to do about Hakemi?_" he asked, changing the subject

"_No idea. I'll sort that when it comes to it._"

"_And Kurosaki?_"

"_So you noticed too huh?_"

"_It was hard not to, he seems to be having a hard time controlling it. So are you going to help him?_"

"_I'll leave him to it for now, but if he loses control of the hollow, I think I'll have to help him._"

"_And if he asks?_"

"_What?"_

"_If he asks for your help?_"

"_Well I'd help him of course._"

"_Knew you'd say that, because he asked be about it the other day while you were out of it and I said we'd train him._"

"_It really is annoying sometimes that you know me so well."_

"_I think of it as an advantage._"

Akemi rolled her eyes, it wasn't really that annoying, but he probably knew her well enough to know that as well. Though she did wonder about training Ichigo, he was half-human, half-shinigami, that changed things... allot. She'd already felt the extraordinarily strong spiritual pressure he had, something to rival a captain-class Shurehemimai.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 - Secret**

People's heads turned, eyes following the two strangers down the corridor. Girls squealed and blushed as the man scanned his dark eyes over them, he winked at one, she fainted. His handsome features bored and uninterested. Guys tilted their heads for a better view of the girl, her hips swinging casually as she walked, her pale blond curls shone in the light, bouncing with each step. The corner of her full lips turned up in a smirk.

_~IK~_

"Ich~i~go!" yelled Keigo, bolting down the corridor toward him. Ichigo held up his arm and clothes-lined him, Keigo's face colliding solidly with his arm, then he continued to ignore him, resuming his 'conversation' with Chad. Keigo clutched his nose, lying on his back "ow... new student... that way." he pointed in the direction he'd just come from.

Ichigo and Chad looked down the corridor, surly enough, there was two people, a guy and a girl, making their way towards them.

"A-A-Akemi?" he stammered "Kaito?"

Keigo seemed to recover instantly. "You know them?" he exclaimed, shocked "But h-"

"Ohayo, Kurosaki-kun, Sado-kun!" she said brightly, raising her hand in greeting, and ignoring Keigo

"W-wait, what about me?" asked Keigo, jumping up in front of her and pointing to him self desperatly

"Oh, sorry Asano-san, I didn't see you." she said

Keigo's face fell, crushed by the use of 'san' at the end of his name, instead of 'kun'.

"What the hell are you two doing here?" Ichigo asked bluntly

Akemi stepped up to him, so she was stood barely an inch away from him, she looked him dead in the eye for a moment (having to look straight up as she only just came up to his shoulders) before stepping back and smiling.

* * *

As sensei started their Math lesson, Ichigo unfolded the note Akemi had pressed into his hand in the hallway.

_Ichigo,_

_Meet me after school,  
__you'll know where =3_

_Tell no one._

_A, xx_

Ichigo stared at the note blankly. What? Meet her where? And why? His head snapped up at a sudden collective sigh from half the girls in the class. Kaito was stood at the board, a piece of chalk in his hand, looking un-interested as Ochi-sensei stared at the board in shock_. _Whatever was written on the board, Ichigo had no idea, and from what he could tell, neither could most of the class. The girl, who always seemed to be in a fit of giggles about something, in front of him leaned across to her friend.

"OMG, he's hot _and _smart!" she squeal-whispered

"I know!" the other squeal-whispered back

He rolled his eyes and went back to the note, wondering if he'd missed something. Nothing. And he still couldn't think _where_ she wanted him to meet her. He looked over to Akemi, who was looking right back at him. She smiled at him.

* * *

Akemi sat cross-legged in the training area under the store, waiting. If Ichigo wasn't as dumb as some made him out to be, he'd work out she meant she wanted him to meet her here. Apparently, he had.

"Sit" she instructed,

"Why did you want me to meet you here?" he asked as he sat down opposite her.

"You're finding it hard to control your hollow yes?" she asked, he nodded "Then I'm gonna teach you how"

"Why?"

"It would be... troublesome if your hollow took over your body, and not just for you."

He looked at her, confused "What do you mean?"

Dead serious, Akemi tiled her head up from the ground to look him in the eye "I'd have to kill you. Once a hollow has complete control of your actions and will, there's no going back-"

"You had a hollow." he cut her off "How... well, how did you... or rather..."

"Do you know what it means to have a conscious hollow-side to your soul?" she asked

"Um... no."

She smiled "Do you understand the difference between a Shinigami and a Shurehemimai?"

"A little bit. Shinigami guide souls to the Soul Society. And Shurehemimai... keep demons in hell?"

"Almost" she laughed, before she leaned forward, a serious look on her face "What I'm about to tell you, you can't tell anyone, understand? And you can't tell anyone I told you."

Ichigo nodded

"You know that Shinigami are also souls, they just have a higher or more powerful spiritual pressure than other souls, and you also know that they have to purify hollows, as well as guide souls to the soul society. You still with me?" he nodded "Well Shinigami are the same, souls with a higher or more powerful spiritual pressure than other souls, but..." she hesitated "Sometimes, not often, but sometimes, there will be an extraordinarily strong hollow, and when it's purified, it's sometimes not properly separated from it's most recently consumed soul and, therefore, isn't _completely_ purified. The hollow will hide itself inside the soul and remain dormant until the host soul has a strong enough spiritual density to maintain a transformation with the hollow."

"Um... okay, where do Shurehemimai cone into this?"

"The Shurehemimai are the host-souls that were strong enough maintain dominance over the hollow, even force it into submission."

"Isn't that the same as a Visored?"

"Visoreds? No, they had part of their soul... 'hollow-fied' (For want of a better word) so it's the same soul, just ... half of it's a hollow. But, those who were also host-souls, but weren't strong enough to control the hollow, but have enough will to force it back... well, they don't often... survive..."

Ichigo looked at her, she looked sad, and slightly scared. "That's me isn't it."

She nodded.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's note: Please read my spin-off story from this: Meeting and Memory.**

**It's about Akira and Kaito (how they met and stuff like that) it will for obvious reasons (Obvious if you were paying attention ;P) contain yaoi (BoyxBoy).**

* * *

**Chapter 9 - Distractions**

"You're not trying" said Akemi sharply, hitting him over the back of her head with her sheathed sword.

Ichigo clutched the back of his head and cursed under his breath, earning him another whack. Sat on the floor meditating wasn't a good place to be when Akemi had revealed that she was in fact a strict (and slightly violent) teacher, he was supposed to be 'getting into contact' with his hollow, which clearly wasn't as easy as Akemi had described it. She'd told him that once he was within his 'inner world' that it should 'all start rolling' from there. The problem was, the only time he'd ever 'visited' his inner world was during battle when he was on the verge of death, he didn't fancy that.

"I am trying." he insisted, gritting his teeth "You're not letting me think."

"Think?" she looked confused "What is there to think about?"

"I'm trying to think how I'm supposed to get to this 'inner world' since you haven't bothered telling me"

She just stared at him, her mouth slightly agape, then she folded her arms "You know when you said you studied under Kisuke for a while? How long was 'a while' exactly?"

"About a week." he replied, and she seemed to wince, it had been just before he'd gone to rescue Rukia from the Soul Society, there hadn't really been much time "He trained me how to get my Shinigami powers back"

"Please don't call them powers" she snapped, before closing her eyes "And with Yoruichi-san?"

"Three days, she taught me how to use Bankai"

"Oh god help me..." she muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose "... three days? ... holy..." she looked up at him "Have you been trained anything in the proper order or fashion?" she asked, exasperatedly.

He shrugged and she dropped her face into her hand. After a moment she looked up.

"Right then, I'm going to have to improvise... Improper and rash training it is then."

Kaito, who had been lounging against a boulder a little way from them, raised his head, a look of mild interest on his face "You're not gonna do that are you?" he asked boredly.

Akemi didn't answer, instead, she pulled off her Haoris and cast them aside, along with her four swords and Fenikkusu.

"I never thought you'd go that far..." muttered Kaito, closing his eyes again and lying back.

Ichigo furrowed his brow, watching Akemi as she sat down opposite him, leaving less than an inch between them. "Neither did I..." she said, raising a glowing fingertip to his forehead. A warmth washed aver him from the tip of Akemi's finger on his forehead, to the tip of his toes and he had the strange sensation of being pulled from his body, although he was already in Shinigami form.

_~Inner World~_

Ichigo opened his eyes and looked round, he appeared to be on an island surrounded by crystal blue water. What looked like a sun burned brightly and furiously with a black-red flame, turning the sky red. Rain fell heavily from nowhere, there wasn't a cloud in sight. From what he could see, there were endless islands scattered through the crystal ocean, all of them bearing glistening white ruins that looked as if they may have been Greek temples. He was sheltered from the rain by some of the ruins.

"Ichigo,"

He turned, Akemi was sat right next to him, he couldn't help but think she looked different.

"Where is this?" was his first question

"My inner world," she answered calmly "Strictly speaking, I've broken one or two rules bringing you here, but we'll live."

"Wh-?"

"Why? Because it's easier to merge you with your Hollow here."

"Merge me with my Hollow?" he exclaimed, that was the last thing he'd imagined "But, I can barely control it!"

"Not it, him. And you can't control it because your spirit density is so high that your hollow has awoken and you're now fighting for control over a single human body, which has put almost extreme stress on the actual existence of said body." Ichigo gave her a confused look "It's pulling apart the very fabric that holds your atoms together, I'm surprised you're not dead already."

He gawked for a moment, lost for words.

"Anyway, on a more serious note." her face fell back to it's authoritative stern look "People who merge with their hollows... well, they change, sometimes it's good, other times... not so much, but once you have, there's no going back. Take Kaito and Akira for example. Kaito was a lazy bum before the change, still is now, but Akira used to be a real shy weakling before the change, now he's... well... hyperactive and a little bit crazy but the friendliest person I know."

Ichigo stayed silent for a moment, thinking "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot"

"What were you like before you merged with your Hollow?"

She raised her eyebrows, she obviously hadn't been thinking that he'd ask this. For a moment, she just stared out over the crystal waters. Ichigo couldn't help but think that she had a distant look about her. Abruptly, she blinked and inhaled deeply "I was too young to remember" she said simply "I'd always had a high spiritual density since birth, it was never a good thing, always..." she drifted off, falling into whatever it was she was remembering. Her hands clenched into fists and she was shaking slightly. Carefully Ichigo placed a hand on her shoulder, when she suddenly started talking "It's not to late to turn back you know, the merging may have already started, but at this stage it can still be undone." there was a hint of anger to her voice.

"I'd be as good as dead if I don't do this" he pointed out

"Better than this sorry existence, it ruins your life. You lose friends, family, everything. You know I said you change? It's not a simple case of Shinigami-to-Shurehemimai. You, in essence, _change_, I can't guarantee you'll even be _you _any more."

Ichigo wanted to ask her what it was that she'd remembered that gave her this sudden change in attitude, but he also understood that anything that caused an abrupt change in behaviour shouldn't be poked at and forced out of a person if they didn't want to talk.

"A person can change as many times as they like, it doesn't change who they are."

She looked blank and glanced at him.

He sighed. "What I'm trying to say is. Whatever you were like before you merged with your Hollow, it doesn't change who you are. and if your friends don't stay your friends after you change, then you can hardly call them friends. And as for loosing family, I know how much it hurts, but, in a way, I guess, your sensei and team-mates become your family. Am I making sense?" he asked, she stared, but before she could respond, everything went black.

Next thing he knew, he was in his own side-ways world, facing his usually wildly grinning Hollow.

_~SPOV~_

Akemi didn't even have time to stand before a ridiculously strong spiritual pressure knocked her flying. Kaito only just managed to dive behind her before she collided head-long with a boulder. He took refuge behind a larger boulder further away from Ichigo. Still cradling her in his arms, Kaito looked Akemi over for injuries. She was fine, though unsurprisingly she was unconscious. If he was having trouble keeping himself upright at this distance, and being within arms reach hand knocked Akemi Urahara, of all people, out cold, there was no way of getting near him. Instead, he lay Akemi down and started making rapid hand-signs. Countless chains shot up from the ground around Ichigo and bound him so tightly that he could only roar in frustration, next a multiple-layered barrier leapt up round him, sealing his spiritual pressure inside that single space.

The sudden absence of spiritual pressure caused Akemi to wake. _Shit._ Was her first thought. Had it just been the suddenness of it? Or was he actually that strong? It wasn't possible was it? Pushing herself off the ground, she look to where Ichigo was sealed inside the barrier. He was already more hollow than he was human, this shouldn't take long then. Looking at the black-red sheathed sword that lay propped against the rock Kaito had put her behind, she stood, reluctantly picking it up as she walked closer to the barrier, and stood next to Kaito. She could feel Kaito watching her out the corner of his eye as she held the red-black sword horizontally, and slowly unsheathed it.

The blade was an uncharacteristic dull silver, and appeared to be completely blunt, yet the blade still glowed eerily.

Sighing, Akemi made her way towards the barrier, passing through it as if it were nothing but thin air. Instantly the half-hollow Ichigo rounded on her, and roared, infuriated, before launching himself at her. Fenikkusu quivered with anticipation as she raised the sword to meet his claw, taking on a sturdy stance. As blade met claw, someone screamed, but Akemi didn't pay attention, because Ichigo had swung his other claw while her sword was occupied, she ahd no choice but to meet it with her right foot, singing her left to kick him in the head. She heard the distinct 'snap's of neck and ankle breaking, but then the secondary 'creak... crack's of bones healing instantly.

_~SPOV~_

Kaito looked round boredly as several Shinigami appeared behind him, two captains, four vice-captains and that Kuchiki kid, who looked quite distressed.

"Can I help you?" he asked out of pure annoyance more than anything.

The male captain with black hair drew his zanpakuto, pointing it at Kaito's throat "You will release Kurosaki this instant." he said plainly, but dangerously.

"Will I?"said Kaito, who would of found it no more than mildly amusing if this man tried to fight him.

The captain raised his eyebrow "You will release him."

"I could, but the captain would be none too pleased if he went on a rampage through the town." he replied defiantly. Clearly aggravated, the Shinigami Captain brought his sword back, about to strike, but Kaito was too fast for him. Their swords clashed. "Don't even try it Gotei." he said, the look of boredom on his face didn't waver.

"Take down the barrier." the Shinigami Captain instructed, I'll take care of this one."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 – 2****nd**** Squad Rebels**

Four men dressed in near-identical clothing watched the Shinigami Captain point his sword at their Lieutenant's throat. They watched their captain fight the Shinigami loosing himself to his Hollow. They watched the Shinigami stand with one hand on their swords, as yet unaware of their presence. The four men wore fitted, long-sleeved black tops with collars that covered the bottom half of their faces, with baggy black pants, ninja-like sandals, fore-arm and shin protectors, and black gloves. Long, sleeveless, hooded white cloaks hid the visible parts of their faces. These men hid in the shadows, waiting patiently for the right time to strike.

_~SPOV~_

Captain Soifon didn't hesitate as she dived forward to the barrier containing Kurosaki and an old friend, a very old friend indeed. She remembered Akemi from her early Onmitsukido training days. As good a fighter Akemi was, she was still weak, a crybaby, this would be easy.

Unexpectedly, Soifon was suddenly pulled solidly to the ground, unable to move. Then she could feel it, something that had been there all along, but she'd never noticed. For a place where light simply radiated from the entire ceiling, her shadow was awfully dark. Taking all her effort, she turned her head to look at her shadow, in an instant, a man wearing all black aside from a white cloak rose out of it.

Being the Commander-in-Chief of the Onmitsukido she of course knew that ninja and assassins had to stick to the shadows, but this took on a whole new meaning. The ninja didn't move, which confirmed her thoughts that he was only keeping her from getting through that barrier.

"It's alright Ohad; you go entertain yourself with the Shinigami vice-captains, this won't take long." Said a smooth voice

Soifon looked round enough to see Akemi stood just outside the barrier, watching her with a look of interest. Kurosaki was laid on the ground inside the barrier, his spiritual pressure completely gone. He was dead. And Akemi looked happy, almost pleased, with his death. As Soifon felt the ninja's hold on her fade, she dived for Akemi, who dodged her attack as if it were nothing.

_~SPOV~_

Wordlessly, Ichigo dived forward and ran the hollow through with his sword, then watched him smirk as he dissolved into dust. As the black dust rushed towards him and enveloped him, merging with him, Ichigo didn't move, he understood now, what Akemi had been telling him about the differences between a Visored and a Shurehemimai.

He looked down at Zangetsu, his Zanpakuto; this sword now only represented half of his being.

_~SPOV~_

The fighting stopped abruptly at the sudden crushing spiritual pressure. Shinigami were almost flattened to the ground, instantly weakened. Shurehemimai looked round in shock at the spiritual pressure to rival a captain's.

In the midst of where the barrier had been only moments before, stood Ichigo, holding an unfamiliar sword in his hand. Ichigo looked down at the sword, a look of interest on his face; he turned it in his hand. The sword was two-thirds the length of Zangetsu, the hilt and sheath were red. He looked round at the Shinigami, almost instantly understanding why they were here.

"Leave." He said simply

_~SPOV~_

Ichigo watched the Shinigami leave through the spirit gate, and he reigned his spiritual pressure back in, looking round at the Shurehemimai left in the room. Four ninja in black and white, Kaito and... Akemi...

'_Damn...' _he thought '_Has she always looked like that?'_ If not, he'd been a fool not to notice before now. _'Since when did she have a belly-button piercing?'_ he wondered. He saw the anxious look on her face and smiled reassuringly at her, before letting go of the new sword and allowing it to evaporate into thin air.

_~Verenite~_

Hakemi lifted her head to look at the man who was stood in the door-way, the same man who had chained her up in here. She laughed bitterly. "What'chall wan naw?" she asked mockingly, earning her a boot across the face. "Aw, play nice" she chimed; this only gained her another kick. Goodness knows how long she'd been her, and she still had yet to know why she'd been brought here.

The man crouched down so he was at eye-level with her; he held her chin with one hand. "Such a beautiful face," he purred "Shame about your accent though. If it weren't for that, I might consider making you one of my pets. You could give little Akira some companionship."

She spat in his face. Even if she didn't like it, Hakemi had the same protectiveness over her subordinates as Akemi did. "_Bastard_" she hissed. He slapped her across the face, before wiping his own.

"What?" he asked, his cockiness increasing "Don't like it that your little friend is nothing more than a quick fuck to me?"

Then Hakemi snapped, and she launched herself at the man, breaking the chains with ease. Claws sprang from the end of her fingers and fangs grew in her mouth.

_~Karakura~_

"What are you doing here?"Akemi asked the four ninja, who had now revealed their faces and could not be more different.

"You don't think we really fell for Masaru's crap do you?" asked the shortest of the four men, he had mouse-brown hair, brown eyes and a bright smile, his name was Anan "Do you have no faith in us?" Next to Anan was a tall black man, who nodded silently in agreement, this was Ohad, he didn't speak much, or at all really.

Akemi grinned, Kaito had mentioned something about some of her squad rebelling, but she had no idea that they'd escaped repression from Masaru. She suspected the Baako, the leader of the four, a man with a dark-blond pony-tail and bright green eyes, was the primary source of the rebels. Finally there was Jirou, the second in command; he was probably the smartest in this group, the strategist, a reserved man with short dark brown hair and glasses.

"Ah, Captain, Vice-Captain... there is the small issue of ranks here, I believe that my comrades are slightly confused as to how to report to." Said Jirou it his usual calm, upright manner.

"What do you mean?" asked Akemi, noticing that he seemed to be forcing the word 'Captain' to refer to her, Kaito just sighed and lit a cigarette.

Jirou cleared his throat slightly "I doubt that any here have failed to notice that you no longer act as any form of vessel to the Hollow, Tígri Daímonas. And your souls are no longer merged or connected. Despite my deepest respect for you, Urahara-san, I cannot deny the fact that you are no longer a Shurehemimai, and therefore no longer Captain of Second Squad, Commander of the Elites, or current standing Omega." He said, his eyes never wavering away from Akemi's. No one spoke, only Ichigo was surprised, everyone else seemed to of seen it coming or known about it. Akemi looked affronted, before she sighed. "The obvious choice for your replacement would be Vice-Captain Chojin." Advised Jirou

"Right then…" she muttered, drawing Fenikkusu and turning to face Kaito, who had drawn Sora no Yumi. They held their swords parallel, then reached out and grabbed the blade of the other's sword, tightly enough to draw blood. Suddenly, Kaito swiped his sword down swiftly, slicing Akemi's hand down to the bone. In that instant, Kaito's Haori turned white and a second one materialized on top of it, this one was black and sleeveless, also, a silver band now glinted on Akemi's bicep, there was fine tiger-print engraved into the band. Both sheathed their blades.

For the second time, Jirou cleared his throat, earning him a sharp 'what now?' from Akemi. "You can't be a vice-captain either." He pointed out "Captain Chojin will have to choose his own."

Everyone looked to Kaito, who was taking a drag on his cigarette, looking bored as hell. Holding the smoke in his lungs for a moment, he watched them, before blowing the smoke up into the air. "Kurosaki" He said simply, taking another drag on his cigarette.

"What?"

"You're my vice-captain."

A shocked silence fell, Ichigo looking horrified. "Th-that's a bit rash, don't you think?" asked Jirou "Shouldn't you take more time over this?"

"Yeah!" interjected Anan, "Didn't he, like, only just go through the change? Wouldn't Baako be more suitable? Why don't you consider him too?"

"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over." He said in a dull tone, although the meaning of this sentence seemed to fly over their heads. "Kurosaki's better suited anyway."

_~Later~_

Half-naked, Ichigo lay back on his bed, arms behind his head. He thought it was strange, how Shurehemimai rules worked, that he could just go straight to being a vice-captain if he was chosen by a captain, even though he'd only properly become a Shurehemimai a few hours ago. The silver band on his bicep glinted in the moonlight. His was unlike Akemi's or Akira's in design, it seemed to be mostly plain, but it glinted a dark red color in the light and had strange symbols carved into it, they looked almost Greek…

"I know you're there." He said clearly, having been able to feel the spiritual pressure outside in the tree outside his window for a while now. There was silence, and then the spiritual pressure left. There had been something strange about that spiritual pressure, it felt familiar, but he couldn't think who it belonged to.

_~SPOV~Morning~_

Yuzu looked up from her cooking when there was a knock at the front door, she turned the gas down on the cooker then ran to go and answer it.

"Yes?" she asked, as she opened the door. Facing her was a tall girl with long light-colored hair, she looked about the same age as Ichigo and she had a bright friendly face.

"Hi, my name's Akemi Urahara, I'm in Ichigo's class. Is he awake yet?" she asked politely

Yuzu beamed excitedly '_Ichigo's girlfriend?'_ she wondered "I'm afraid not, would you like me to go and wake him?"

"No, it's not that important really, I'll just come back in an hour or two."

Before Akemi could turn to leave, Yuzu stopped her "you could come in if you like!" she said brightly, having taken an instant liking to Ichigo's girlfriend. "I was just serving breakfast!"


End file.
